April News Part 3

Great Eastern Railway 1899 4 Wheel Brake Third 853

Work has now slowed on this vehicle due to the manpower needed to progress the Quad Art set, however Monkey at least has been able to keep the ball rolling, with the two rear tail lamps (pictured last week) having their lenses fitted and further coats of paint added.

London North Eastern Railway 1924 Quad Articulated Set 74

Work has now started in earnest on these, with large teams at work most days. The Holt end pair of coaches are having their water damaged ceilings cleaned down within the passenger compartments. Each ceiling is also being repainted and so far a good number of them have been primed and some also top-coated in eggshell.

Meanwhile scaffolding has been erected over the Sheringham end pair of coaches, which was done over two days. Midweek, we were able to get up on there and assess where the water has been getting in. The ventilators appear sound but there are two wooden strips which run along the roof either side of the vents which appear to be causing problems. One strip is hollow and carries electical wires, the other one is cosmetic and is a solid piece of wood. They have small sections cut into the bottom of them every 12 inches (about 1mm tall) which are supposed to let water drain through and down the coach roof via gravity. These have all gotten completely blocked and the gap is completely insufficient which has presumably created a central "trough" of bathwater which has leaked into the hollow strips and into the ceilings via the holes where the cables pass through to service the light fittings inside each compartment.

We have been systematically cutting out small sections of the wooden strips and raising them to create a much larger gap for water to pass freely through. Other areas are being resealed with sealant to try and halt water getting into the cable troughs. The holes where the cables pass into the compartments are also being sealed.

Other areas of roof have bubbled, particularly around where the rainstrips are (more wooden pieces, this time near to the bottom of the roof which stop water dribbling downwards onto the bodysides - effectively gutters). The bubbled paint is being cut cleanly out and will be recovered in the near future when we paint the roofs.

British Railways 1955 Mark 1 Second Open M4372

The last few days that this coach was with us was fairly frantic as we tried to complete everything we needed to do before releasing it into service. We were able to give the main underframe components a repaint into gloss black, along with the bufferbeams and associated equipment, including the footboards which were peeling badly.

This done, signwriting of the symbols and lettering required on the underframe was completed, here Monkey is seen getting involved with the Emergency Lightin' - no "g"... I'm sure readers who listen to Radio 2 on a Friday afternoon will pick up the reference!

Wednesday morning saw the coach tripped back to Sheringham just in time to be reformed into the dining set for its maiden voyage on Thursday evening. We are very pleased to have received positive comments already on the coach's appearance, it really looks remarkably improved on how it came in nine weeks ago.

British Railways 1959 Tourist Second Open M4843

Currently in Bridge Road Carriage sheds waiting to be brought back to the workshops.

British Railways 1958 Class 101 Railcar Driving Motor Brake Second M51192

Re-upholstery continues nicely. A trip into the upholstery workshops revealed that a great number of the passenger seats are now completed and ready to refit.

The current areas of progress are the side cards, or "boomerangs" which are being re-clad in the new blue leatherette style material.

Guards and drivers seats are also being stripped down ready for recovering in due course.

Weybourne Station

Lastly, a small update on "side projects" for up on the station which have been completed alongside the carriage work. Firstly, a photo of the platform trolleys which have been mentioned in these blogs a few times but they never featured after they were all finished and painted up on the platforms:

Secondly, a recent arrival via the M&GN Society has been a scale model of a haycart which has arrived at Weybourne a few weeks ago. Straight away, before it had time to deteriorate, it was cleaned back and repainted into red and Great Eastern Railway blue! It is now on display in the picnic area accessed under the road bridge from the main platform.

To stop the wheels rotting with groundwater, four stands have been made (out of old boiler tubes) to raise the wheels slightly off the ground for display purposes. They are in currently in the process of being painted.